Egyptology & Sudanarchaeology SAVED at Humboldt-University
On March 30, 1998, in a meeting of the "Akademische Senat", the highest
body of the self-administration of the Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, a
2/3 majority of its members voted in favour of keeping the professorships
of Egyptology and Sudanarchaeology at this university in spite of the
existence of Egyptology also at the Freie Universitaet (ex West-Berlin).
After many hours of discussion this decision had been taken AGAINST all
recommendations of all other committees and administrative units of the
university which suggested to cut -for financial resons only- both
professorships at the Humboldt relying on an orally made promise that the
vacant second professorship in Egyptology (focus: archaeology) at the Freie
Universitaet will be filled.
This positive decision came as a total surprise to everybody, including
ourselves, who did not see any chance left after the HU had recently even
decided to eliminate Germany's unique professorship in Sudanarchaeology to
the favour of an archaeology oriented second Egyptology professorship at
the FU. But due to the tradition which Egyptology (first chair in Germany
created for Richard Lepsius in 1846) and Sudanarchaeology (independent
degree-subject initiated by the late Prof. Fritz Hintze) played especially
at this university, individual Senators wanted to keep these subjects alive
at the Humboldt-Universitaet thus causing the long discussion about them
and the vast majority to vote in their favours. However, I must emphasize
here, that this decision was mainly due to our students who, days before
this important session, visited EVERY single member of the "Akademische
Senat" personally and informed them about the history and the meaning of
these subjects, so that a problem called "Egyptology and Sudanarchaeology"
was present in the minds of the Senators who in the majority were not even
representatives of the Humanities!
Accordingly, this totally surprising decision got an unusual press coverage
in the Berlin daily papers. Here a quote from "Der Tagesspiegel" of 04/01
in a report about the session: "Besonders stark setzten sich die
Aegyptologen fuer die Erhaltung ihres Seminars an der HU ein. Erika
Endesfelder, Professorin am Seminar fuer Aegyptologie / Sudanarchaeologie
verwies auf die Traditionen der Aegyptologie an der HU und auf die
Beteiligung ihrer Studenten an der derzeitigen Mumienausstellung im
Kunstgewerbemuseum. Und sie hatte Glueck, denn der Senat warf die
Absprachen mit der FU ueber den Haufen und entschied sich, die Aegyptologie
und die Sudanarchaeologie mit je einer Professur an der HU zu erhalten."
and from "Berliner Morgenpost" of the same day: "Ueberraschend beschloss
der Akademische Senat, die Sudanarchaeologie - ein Unikum der Deutschen
Hochschullandschaft - und die Aegyptologie fortzufuehren."
By the way, another subject which all committees and administrative units
wanted to cut but which the "Akademische Senat" again against all
recommendations
decided to keep at the HU is Jewish Studies (through a permanent
guest-professorship), while 'Koreanistik' with also a long and highly
esteemed tradition and currently two professors at the HU was cut
immediately without a word of discussion ...
However, this was not the last battle to fight, the decisions taken by the
different universities in Berlin will now be evaluated by an independent
committee of professors from all German universities ("Wissenschaftsrat") who
will propose to the Land of Berlin how the future structures of those
universities should look like and should be financed by the government ...
So we have to continue to keep our fingers crossed!
Christian E. Loeben
Egyptology
Humboldt-University of Berlin / Germany
e-mail: h0539asi@rz.hu-berlin.de